Child Abduction (open)

[Chidori Draconid]

Chidori Astram Draconid sauntered along the nightime streets of Scara Brae with his cane in his right hand, and a glass of sweet white wine in his left. He was momentarily oblivious to his surroundings for a robbery was clearly taking place just across the street from where he was walking. The young deity was lost in thought, musing as to what to do with his life first. There were so many things to do on Althanas. Mercenaries were plentiful and seemingly prosperous due to the abundance of conflict in this world. With that said, this world could use a good dose of diplomacy. Diplomats spent a good deal of their time talking and forging connections between people. That could be fun for him. He enjoyed talking. Or should he simply skip the formalities and rule a nation himself? Nothing huge, maybe just a little island nation off the coast of Alerar. Oh who was Chidori kidding? As much of a god as he once was, he was mortal now; and he needed to focus on basics for the moment. One of which being somewhere to call home. On the ethereal plains an entity could roam comfortably, but the concept of a personal dwelling was quite popular here. The desire for such must come from other provisions like food, security, and sleep, all of which he’d have to get used to.

The young deity’s train of thought was broken by handful of large men as they passed him by. He followed them to a tavern of substandard upkeep. The sign had letters missing. That was when he noticed how far he had walked. The overall state of his surroundings had fallen drastically. He could tell he was on the bad side of town by looking at the general quality of the buildings, which had gone from classy, clean, red brick to old, rotted, grey wood. It was okay though. Chidori needed to experience this side of civilization, and quite frankly he had no choice. There was no home for him to go to, and no money for him to purchase a home with. Plus he was bored, and the image of a young man with a glass of wine and a cane stepping into a bar full of roughens with beer mugs was enticing. And so he stepped into the tavern and made a b-line for the bar. While the entire tavern didn’t fall silent, a temporary hush followed him as he passed tables of men of the worst kinds. They were sizing him up as he made a proud stride across the floor.

After what seemed an eternity Chidori finally hopped up into a bar stool. This would be his little island during his time here.
“Bartender?” A scruffy middle-aged man appeared from under the counter as he wiped down a shot glass. “Four shots of your best tequila, please.” He said as he placed a few coins on the counter. Just then he heard a group of masculine chuckles, and he turned around to see a large muscular bald man in a suit of leather armor standing over him.
Chidori raised an eyebrow, “Can I help you?”
“Yea” the warrior said, “You wouldn’t mind telling my why someone like yourself is on this side of town at this time of night, would you? There’s a whole lot of trouble here. This is where the sharks swim, and you, my friend, are the fish we feed on.” The two were close to touching noses now for the warrior thought it was a good idea to get in the young deity’s face.
Chidori smiled without fear, “I was told I could find the best tequila in town here, and I came up with the best idea to take wine between tequila shots. Would you care to join me?” He had just come up with that. He had no doubt he had the ability to take this belligerent man on in a one on one battle, but then he’d have an entire bar to get past to safety. This was a more entertaining challenge anyways.
“Don’t mind if I do.” The warrior took a shot glass full of crystal clear tequila. “In fact, I’ll give it a try first.” He quickly dipped his head back as he took the shot.
Chidori handed the man his glass of wine before giving him the pleasure of taking it. “Take only a sip. You’re going to need more for the other shots.”
“It’s sweet!”
“I know. It’s a bitch drink. Take another shot and I guarantee it’ll be like you just took your first shot of the night.”
The warrior did so and reacted with a sour face and misty eyes. “That’s stronger than the first shot. Hey, boys, come over. Try this out. This is smart!”

Within an hour, Chidori had gone from the odd man out to one of the guys. He had won the favor of a table of seventeen warriors, who only knew each other slightly better than they knew him. One half of them were natives. The other half hailed from Corone with one or two from Fallien. When they made inquiries about his origins he simply made things up on the spot, hoping that his memory would serve him well. To them, his name was Virlomi, a twenty year old warrior hailing from a human enclave in Raiaera. That seemed to be the best façade just in case he had to use his abilities. He could just claim that he took a few classes at Istien University. Unfortunately, the divinity only had the pleasure of giving his tequila idea, which he had improvised on the spot, a couple of tries. Chidori was on his third shot when it seemed as though his father, Draco, was purposefully attempting to interrupt him.

The volume of the bar had fallen drastically, but not to silence, almost as if he had entered the tavern again. This time, however, onlookers weren’t focused on an out of place patron. They were watching as a herd of people dashed past them in the street outside. Finally a random man popped in and screamed,
“Two dragons are approaching!”
Chidori’s head tilted in confusion, while the entire pub began to empty in an instant. Shoulders collided with his as he calmly made his way to the front door where the frenzied crowd squeezed out. People were running to his right, so he turned left to see a pair of primitive green dragons. The two of them had to have been mates for they would have been fighting otherwise. They sauntered along, like he had nearly an hour ago, without attacking people even as they were well within striking range. This was peculiar. Why they were here and why weren’t they feeding was beyond him. Green dragons liked meat of any kind, and here it was running around right in front of them, which meant that they were looking for something extremely important. Their offspring. It had to have been their offspring and the only reason good enough for both mother and father to be away from the liar at the same time. The punishment would be death for the culprit, but Chidori was more worried about the offspring and any innocent bystander who may have touched them. The dragons would smell their babies’ and consider them guilty by association.

The divinity had no way of finding out who took the offspring before the parents did, so he could only follow them until they found a suspect, and hope that they were prepared for the parents’ arrival. Whoever took those eggs knew what to expect. It was common knowledge that stealing a dragon’s eggs would result in death. Chidori knew his part in all this. If it was an innocent bystander, he would defend him or her, extract information necessary to end this conflict, and provide a means of escape. If it was the culprit(s) and the offspring is present, he would let the dragons kill them. He would even give the dragons assistance if needed. Abduction of any kind was wrong.
“You comin, buddy?” One of the seventeen warriors asked as he swung around the threshold. The man was at least a foot taller than the young deity and at least twice his weight. Like the warrior that approached him this man was clad in leather armor, but this man had a crossbow and a canteen latched to his belt.
Chidori smiled. He was flattered at the fact that he had earned the status of ‘buddy’.
“No,” The divinity said in a calm tone, “They’re looking for their offspring, so they won’t hurt you if you didn’t abduct them.”
“As much as I like you I can’t be takin’ word for it.” The warrior extended his giant hand and opened it to reveal a smooth mahogany pipe. “Take this for good luck. It’s still lit and there’s a good bit tobacco left in it.”
“Thank you. I’ll be sure to return it to you the next time I see you.”

The warrior disappeared into the alley as Chidori stood outside the now deserted pub. He could understand the warrior’s fear for he didn’t know dragons. Chidori did though, and he was confident in his conclusion, so he casually leaned on his cane as the pair of dragons approached. He could feel the vibrations of their heavy four legged footsteps as they passed by. They didn’t even give him a sniff, but he wasn’t complaining. Better they pass me by than smelling their breath and touching their wet mucus glazed noses, the divinity thought as he took a couple of puffs. The giant scaly tails of the dragons dragged by in his peripheral vision, and after waiting another moment he followed a good forty feet behind. This would be his good deed for the night. He would help these parents find their children.

[Kaiser]

Tomorrow, as soon as morning came she would be out of here and heading for Corone, her time in Scara Brae was not really one wisely spent, there was so much more she could have done, so many more missions, quests she could have accepted. Kaiserin Nightwind, one of the last silvets, no in truth she was only part silvet, and part human, her tail gently flopped from side to side as she lay down looking up at the sky minding her own business. Why was she lying on a roof of some run down house in the bad part of Scara Brae, simple, she wasn’t allowed on the roofs in the good section that’s why. She didn’t have a bed for tonight either, not after splashing out so recklessly for her new armour and the daggers.

“… To ride away … when you’re in-hailing…”

He voice calmly whispered the lyrics to a song she had heard not to long ago, it was really catchy, especially the way it was sung. Kaiserin was bored, spending a night on the streets was going to be harsh, although she had pulled many all nighter, she never had to pull one while trying to rest. Her passage to Corone had been a special deal; it was hard to find someone so sympathetic that they would allow her to bore her way on. Slowly she began to notice her eyes slowly get heavy, good sleep was a good way to rest up and to burn away the wait to almost nothing, that is, until the owner of the house notices her and starts throwing rocks to wake her up, but it wasn’t her fault that she liked high places, damn this monkey heritage of hers.

Then she began to notice her stomach begin to rumble, odd as it was, she didn’t feel hungry, and the rumbles were separated by an equal period of time, no wait it was gradually getting faster and more violent. Wait, it was not her stomach, her eyes opened and she sat up holding her belly, nope it was definitely not rumbling, so then what…

“DRAGON!!!” a voice from bellow bellowed out in a thunderous cry.

“Oh crap”

“TWO OF THEM!!!” a second voice, filled with a fear replied to correct the first

“Double oh crap”

Kaiserin was now on her feet using her vantage point to look around, and sure enough she could see them, not too far away either, it was a strange sight, dragons not being surrounded by fire, destruction, and some guy fleeing in terror waving his arms around like a sissy.

“ARRRGH”

Oh no wait, there was the sissy. Kaiserin returned her attention back to the dragons, she would be lying if she said she had never seen one before, however the one she had met was a lot smaller than these, and on both occasions was disguised as a human, but he had been a good friend in the short time between separating from her father, and coming to Scara Brae. ‘ No chaos or destruction … but why am I still resisting the urge to go to Corone right now? ’ Inner thoughts later, right now there was something big happening, and there was no way she would miss this one, besides it was a real chance to meet a dragon, not in disguise, up close. Ok Maybe not up close.

“Well … this definitely beats sleeping; I wonder what’s going on”

It didn’t take long for Kaiserin to catch up, but she didn’t take a short cut across the roof tops, agile she was, but not that agile, she dropped down to the street below and followed the screams and the yells, not to mention a few people just as curious as herself. Kaiserin broke away from the crowd and ran down a seemingly abandoned street, it was suddenly quiet, she noticed as she ran into the main street. She could still feel the rumbles of the dragons stomps but. Suddenly a huge green leg stepped passed her, then another on the other side, she didn’t need a second guess as the two huge hulking forms simply ignored her and continued on searching or just passing through.

“…Holy Crap”

Her voice barely whispered, had that just happened, who knows, she couldn’t move, her body just would not respond, she could not even fall over as she watched the two dragons continue on walking down the street. Then her body ‘unlocked’ itself and she felt half of her body fall limp, she didn’t even have the idea to continue onwards, instead her attention turned to someone who was following the dragons. He was clad like he belonged to the ‘good’ part; still as soon as word of this spreads she was sure a lot more would be coming. She then ignored the mans presence then, as she started to then wonder, as well as voice out.

“…What the hell do the town guards do in this situation”

[Chidori Draconid]

“When was the last time you saw the town guard drill for dragon encounters?” Chidori said as he glanced at a girl who seemed to be made to be his polar opposite. Her hair was silver, of all colors, her eyes were ruby red, and her skin was pale white. “They’re probably watching from a safe distance right now.” It was wrong for Chidori to assume something like that. The town guard was probably preparing the ballista weapons. The fact that their reaction time was miserably slow said nothing about their valor.

“No need to worry, madam. They’re only looking for their offspring, which they plan to take and leave as long as no one gives them any trouble.”

Chidori stopped and observed the battle wounds on one of the dragons’ backs. It was the smaller two story tall female on the left who had a plethora of scars going every which way on her back. She must have been a combative dragon, for all of those marks were too large to be done by small blades. The larger male on the right had no marks whatsoever, which made quite a statement about his dominance. The fact that he had a mate and no battle scars meant he possessed a spotless battle record against competing male dragons. The battles were decisively in his favor. Chidori was grateful that this pair was not belligerent at the moment. He stopped and turned to the silver haired woman.

“If I were you I’d pray for the idiot who took their children.” He said with a puff of his new pipe.

Just then both dragons paused and straightened their long necks as they scanned the landscape and made quite audible sniffs. They had caught a whiff of their offspring. This was good… Suddenly the male dragon turned to face Chidori. He knew that look. It was the same in all species. The male dragon was angry, and it was angry at him. Its chest slowly began to expand, and there was no doubt about it. He was the thief in the dragons’ eyes, and the both of them were ready to kill (the male dragon ready to cook). How could they consider him the culprit? The pipe. That warrior and his sixteen friends, they were the abductors, and he gave the young deity his pipe knowing good and well that the dragons would smell their children on him. Chidori had been hoodwinked. He immediately ran for the alley where the girl stood drew his sword from his cane.

“Sorry. Since I was communicating with you they probably think you’re the thief as well. Although I’m not the thief either. I just have their scent on me.”

The female let out a mighty roar as the males fire breath covered the street he was once standing in. While the fire was well away from them, the extreme heat burst into the narrow ally blowing Chidori forward.

“…Run.” Just then the giant scaly tail of the female dragon swung from the outside corner and slammed into the building beside them. Splinters burst out at as the wooden structure snapped like a broken bone. Chidori shielded his eyes with his hands, which were immediately impaled with tiny spears of wood. He then began his retreat through the alley and into the street parallel to the dragons hoping that the girl was doing the same.

[Rain Ishikura]

((Sorry about the shortness... I'm still getting into the swing of things again...))

Walking calmly through alley ways of the city Einn Mudo looked around as the earth under him shook greatly. With all the madness taking place it was hard to see why he was so calm about this. He knew about the dragons looking for their children but he had no care about what was really happening to this place. He kind of was just planning on leaving since he had no business here to begin with. As he walked into a intersection of the alleyway he looked down a way were he could see dust being kicked up from the near by dragon attack. As he lowered his eye sight he noticed a black haired man heading in his direction. Einn just shrugged his shoulders and sat down, He had a lot of walking to do and felt like resting up. Sitting there he felt the ground shack once more, this time much greater then any other time he had felt while walking here. Looking upward, the dragon had landed on the roof of the house he was sitting next to and looking down straight at him. Einn sighed, “Well that was lucky…” He said calmly as he slowly got up not to piss this beast off even more. The dragon took in a deep breath then shot out a blaze of fire at Einn.

“Damn…” Einn stated in an almost mono toned voice and he quickly jumped out of the way and ran towards the black haired man heading his way. “You better follow me…” He stated as he ran by. And back out onto the main road. He looked around. “Hmmm now were should I go…” He said looking up back at the dragon that seemed to be right on his tail. 'Better figure something out fast...' Einn thought.

[Kaiser]

“Since you was communicating with me?”

Kaiserin repeated the stranger’s words, for some reason it had not yet clicked, even when the dragons had turned around upon catching that familiar scent. She could see the anger in there eyes, the satisfaction of finding one of the pieces to getting there young back. Now it clicked for Kaiserin, she would have punched the man in the face right now for getting her involved, but she observed the pipe, wondering if that was what was luring the dragon’s attention.

“You just have there scent … what the hell did I do to deserve this?”

She guessed looking back towards the dragon, it wasn’t long however before there were preparing to attack, no, too late they were already attacking after hearing a loud roar, and the strangers obvious comment to run away as fast as possible. Following that was a breath of fire waiting to turn them into ash, yet as the stranger went in one direction, Kaiserin had little choice but to flee towards the other side of the street, she leaped into the safety of the ally turning to feel the heat on her face.

“… Why can’t dragons breathe water instead?”

She groaned while raising a arm to shield her face, for all that would do, then the fire cleared and Kaiserin saw the man get attacked once again by one of the dragons, the attack hit a house instead, and the young silvet was amazed at the raw power. Kaiserin unsheathed her two daggers and got ready to charge towards the dragon, but she did not move an inch.

‘ what the hell am I thinking ’

She was about to charge towards a dragon, not that the challenge didn’t excite her, but this was a dragon they were talking about, a whole load of impenetrable dragon scales, a mouth full of dagger like teeth, not to mention the hot fire breath and the raw power. She would have been crushed in an instant. Still at least her problems were now over; surely they would stop chasing her now. The silvet then got the strange feeling that something was behind her, maybe it was the sound of sniffing, or maybe the warm air on the back of her neck, she really did not need to turn around to greet the other dragon.

“… I am going to kill that guy way before you!”

She said out loud, and then ran for all she could; she could not directly follow the other man so she had to run a little up the burnt street before skipping down an ally to the other street where the man should be, as long as he had not already moved on. No good news, he was still there, and it seemed like he had been joined by another dark haired man. Too bad there was two dragons, if there was just one then maybe she could slip away and leave him to deal with the trouble he got himself into, but there were two of them, and it seemed like the dragons would hunt both of them down now.

‘ if we ever get out of this, he is giving me everything he owns for compensation! ’

With little choice she ran as fast as she could towards them, mindful of the male dragon swiftly leaping onto the roof as the female one was just up ahead, two dragons, one was bad enough but why the hell did there have to be two of them. She skidded to a halt in front of them looking up at the female dragon. Then with a harsh push she whacked the two men in there backs, urging them to stop standing still and start running.

“Get moving … or do you want to be a little on the done side?”

Without even waiting for there reply or to even acknowledge her, she slipped past them and was running up the main road, this time away from the male who had just flown over to the other side of the street, maybe to stop them from going down the alleys, and to keep them on this current street.

[Chidori Draconid]

Chidori rubbed his forehead stressfully at the presence of this dark haired man. It was understandable that he had mistaken the dragon’s fire breath to be directed at him, but it was aiming for Chidori. This fellow just happened to be in the line of fire. He could have simply avoided the fire and left, but now he had communicated with Chidori becoming a permanent target for the pair of dragons. Follow you? Chidori thought to himself. This young man acted like he knew how to deal with dragons.

“We should keep moving between the alleys while going north,” he said as he pointed down the road, “They were following the scent of their eggsin that direction. That way we can lead them to a stronger scent while putting something between us and them.”

Chidori was the son of the God of Dragons. The young deity knew them so well that he didn’t even need to use his empathy to figure out their intentions… On second thought maybe he should use his god given ability. His pupils turned slit shaped as he focused on the closer male dragon situated atop a building. All he could sense was anxiety as the male dragon watched its mate chase after the silver haired girl he had met in the ally. She was heading their way. The female dragon was much angrier now that she had a fellow female on which to place the blame; such was the typical response in nature. He was right. The pair of dragons were searching for the offspring, and their sights were set on Chidori, this new fellow, and this silver haired girl who would get the brunt of the female’s rage. Despite her anger, however, the female dragon had yet to utilize her fire breath.

As the silver haired girl ran in their direction the female dragon huffed and puffed several times. It wasn’t able to breathe fire, so it must have recently over extended itself. The male would have to wait for a few minutes before breathing fire again for its last blast was that of maximum strength rage. Although still powerful and dangerous, both dragons would have to resort to closer range tactics, claw slashes, bites, and tail swipes. If there was a time to neutralize the dragons it was now, so Chidori waited for the silver haired girl to catch up with him before he started running. She had daggers in her hands. That would prove to be useful. He and this new cohort received a few chastising words from the young woman as he ran with her.

“I’m Chidori. Pleased to meet you two.” The young deity said assuming the fellow had followed suit.

Seconds later a long gust of wind began to push from behind them carrying a foul smell of raw meat. That wasn’t the wind. It was the breathing of both dragons’ wide open mouths as they closed in on the three. Chidori turned directly around while still running backwards only to confirm his suspicion. His starburst grey eyes seemed to ignite like a pair of supernovas as a sphere of concentrated blue plasma formed in front of him and made its way into the female dragon’s mouth. He continued running not waiting to see the effect on the dragon. Instead he simply pointed at the male dragon’s wide open mouth to the left of the group, and screamed.

“Daggers! Daggers! To your eight!”

Hopefully the girl got the message and would immediately launch a dagger into the wide open mouth of the male dragon. If not she would surely be swallowed.

[Rain Ishikura]

Einn quickly followed the two running north with them, he over heard the dark haired boy say his name was Chidori. He ran up as quickly as he could to catch up to them, drawing his sword although he wasn’t sure how affective a bastard sword would be against a dragon. As they ran down the road Chidori had yelled over to the silver haired girl about a dragon to her eight, Einn; from what he could see, saw that she might not make it in time to be eaten. Just then he felt his head and heart tell him two different things.

“God damn it.” He yelled out as he pushed passed the silver haired girl.

Jumping up at the male dragon lifting his blade above his head, Einn quickly jumped up on a near wagon then up on a balcony to a house, and then finally he jumped up to the dragons head level and brought down his blade, it hit against the dragons scales hard and shook Einn’s entire body. The dragon quickly reacted to Einn’s attempt to silence it with an act of rage; it brought its head up to Einn’s level, but then swung its entire body around and lunged its tail at Einn.

“Oh shit…” he said in yet a calm voice.

Seeing how Einn was in midair he couldn’t really move from the dragon’s way. Then came the feeling of a hard slap against Einn’s chest. “And here comes the real fun’ thought Einn as he felt himself get hurdled across the air heading north. ‘Well at least I’ll make it to where ever we were heading first.’ Einn thought as he went speeding through the air. He had hoped this would allow the silver haired girl and Chidori got find a place to hide.

[Kaiser]

“Daggers! Daggers! To your Eight”

… of Cause … Kaiserin had known what he had meant, he wanted her to stop, spin around and throw one of her daggers into the mouth of the male dragon, what fun that would be, considering that Chidori had not noticed a couple of things. Kaiserin was not proficient in dagger use, sure she could wield them, but her real skill laid in her other sword, that and there was the fact that her daggers are close to impossible to throw, there design was not meant for that. Kaiserin had stopped anyway spinning around glad for her head start, she had stopped if at all just to see what those dragons were doing, she wished she had not

‘ Oh crap ’

The two had then passed her, but it seemed like the other had stopped, turned and barged right past her wielding a sword ready to tackle the dragon head on, self-righteous fool. Kaiserin then steeled herself while turning and running again, she had missed her chance, and was half expecting Chidori to yell at her for it, but wait she should yell at him for getting her involved.

“What an idiot!”

She yelled looking over her shoulder, in time to see the dragon play baseball, of all the things to happen, Kaiserin sheathed her daggers straight away and charged onwards, easily over taking Chidori. She then saw the other guy descending ahead of them, the idiot, but she could catch him, that would be easy. Kaiserin raced one ahead before leaping into a slide catching the other guy before he hit the ground. She got out from under him and back onto her feet while looking back at the dragons, this would be the hard part.

“…Idiot, don’t go playing hero”

((Sorry I got a little writers block at the moment))

[Chidori Draconid]

“She’s right.” Although Chidori wouldn’t resort to calling the man an idiot. Breaking the morale of an unlikely ally would be detrimental in this situation. “You have to play it smart in this situation. Now our chance to immobilize this one is gone.”

For a second the male dragon on which this unnamed swordsman had attacked wiggled its back and flapped its wings a few times just to make sure no one was still on it. That just went to show how little a threat Chidori and the other suspects were to them. They were willing to waste precious moments making second checks such as this one. But now it was back to the task at hand. Killing the suspects. The dragon turned once again to the three of them and made a great inhale. Its chest slowly inflated as its neck and head straightened. The three of them were at the perfect distance from the dragon. The distance at which the fire from the dragon’s mouth would reach its maximum width. They wouldn’t have enough time to get the swordsman up and get out of the way before the fire hit them. This was it. Chidori had had such a short life on Althanas. It would be back to the ethereal planes for him.

Just then a great boulder made contact with the dragon’s neck interrupting the fire breath, and in the distance stood four miniature ballistae and a group of men. They were all dressed differently so they couldn’t be from the town guard, and the very presence of expensive ballistae ruled out the chance that they were a part of the town militia. They must have been the child abductors. The pair of dragons was no longer thinking about Chidori and his unlikely cohorts as they both made a charge for the men. The male dragon released his fire, which traveled more than fifty yards to coat two ballistae and ten men. Panicking screams filled the young deity’s ears as the flames outlined men rolling on the ground, chasing others for assistance, or simply dropping dead. That could have been the three of them.

Suddenly the female dragon fell to the ground with a giant flop. She rolled to the side to expose her neck and chest, which were covered with giant orange darts like a rash. That was far too much. She was going to die! He turned to his two yet to be named comrades.
“Those are the child abductors. If we help the dragons kill them they’ll see us as friends, but if we do nothing they’ll turn back and come after us again.”
Then a woman’s scream came from the direction of the men, and a fire lit body revealed a cage in which the woman was captive.
“They abduct women too.”

With that the young deity ran as fast as he could behind the male dragon. He drew his sword from his cane and wrapped it in his own plasma hot stellar energy. That was a tactical mistake for his glowing blue blade made him an easy target for the seven remaining warriors. Only seconds after he had coated his blade, he felt a sharp agonizing pain in his shoulder. It was so sharp and agonizing that he had to release a scream similar to that of the burning men. It was an arrow, but he kept running. If he stopped now the male dragon would run ahead of him and he would be completely without cover. The man who had handed Chidori the pipe could be seen reloading his crossbow. He was one of two warriors equipped with poison darts, the only darts sharp and precise enough to penetrate the dragons’ thick scaly skin. Three other men were equipped with bows and arrows, and the last two equipped with long swords were guarding the women in the cages.

The bowmen were reloading as well. This was Chidori’s chance to attack, so he slowed down, leaped over the tail of the male dragon, charged for the coward that ambushed him, and swung his blade. Unfortunately the coward knew how to defend against a sword using a crossbow, which he used to catch the blade. The young deity dropped the cane scabbard to twist and turn the blade with both hands. His left hand or his left arm for that matter wasn’t useful though. The arrow had weakened him drastically. He knew he wouldn’t get it free by doing just that, but he had heat of the stellar energy on his side, and the strings and pulleys of the wooden crossbow began to burn and snap. His sword was finally set free, and the young deity made a quick overhead strike to the artery. The stellar energy immediately burned, so no blood came out. Instead Chidori could use the heat to dig straight through to the heart.

He had forgotten about the other enemies though. Before he could provide his fallen enemy with more torture, the sharp pain of his arrow wound hit him again. A bowman to his left had yanked it out, and a bowman to his right swung his bow and made contact with Chidori’s head. The following feeling wasn’t exactly pain. It was more so drowsiness. He stood there helpless as he could barely make out the other man with the poison crossbow firing upon the male dragon. A large thump shook the ground at his feet. Both dragons were dead now, and Chidori couldn’t tell whether his blurry vision came from the hit, or the tears swelling in his eyes.

“They only want their children.” He said quietly as he fell to his knees. Tears began to run down his face.

“They only want their children…”

((Feel free to bunny the remaining men. Read this post carefuly to make sure the details are right with your posts. Don't bunny the women in the cages though.))

[Rain Ishikura]

Einn slowly got up and stretched a bit before turning around to see where he blade had landed. Looking all over he noticed it was stuck in the side of a house. Looking back towards his other new found alley at the moment, there had seemed to be a lot of men gathering to fight. Normally Einn wouldn’t take part in the fighting of normal men just for the fun but then he got an idea.

“Heh… Well sorry you looked like you needed some help…” He stated calmly.

He then turned around and began to walked towards his blade; as he got closer to the house a man ran out from a house on the side of him swinging a wooden plank of wood. Einn saw the wood coming out of the corner of his eye and quickly got out of his way by turning his body to the side and bending over. The men jumped back as he readied his plank for another swing.

“Listen do you think I would be after you if I just flew threw the damn air because of a dragon…” Said Einn as he snatched the plank of wood from the man and threw it to the floor.

The man watched as Einn walked over to the house and pulled his Bastard Sword from it. The men ran to Einn and told him he would pay Einn to get these dragons out of here. Einn smiled and turned to the one who had caught him. He began to slowly walked towards the girl.

“And what about those two?” Questioned Einn.

The man told him he didn’t have anything against them and only confront them if they tried to get in his way to stop the dragons.

“Alright man you have a deal…” Einn said as he walked towards the girl.

[Kaiser]

As soon as the loud boom of artillery filled her ears she immediately looked over in the direction. She stayed long enough to hear what Chidori had to say while the other seemed to go and retrieve his sword. With little reason to stay put went to find cover, or at least stay out of sight. A lot of things happened while she watched from one of the alleys; the man who had been tossed like a rag doll seemed to be getting attacked by some random man. But the true new events happened with Chidori, it seemed that it wasn’t the town guard, but instead someone new, a team of an ugly bunch of mercenaries she thought. Armed with crossbows and great swords, and holding a couple of women hostage … why the hell did they hold women hostage when they were fighting dragons.

She watched as Chidori went to charge at them but got hit by a bolt from one of the crossbows, he assaulted one but eventually fell to his knees. Kaiserin frowned, she had little knowledge on what was currently happening, it all seemed like it was starting to spiral out of control.

“ … If we attack them, the dragons will see us as friends …”

She repeated the words of Chidori, what he said before making his charge, this was a tough call, there was no way they were going to be weak, and there was no guarantee if what he said would be true, for all she knew, they would still have them for lunch. On the other hand, if she left now, and the dragons would hunt her down for revenge, well being hunted by dragons would not be a fun experience.

“ … This totally sucks”

Kaiserin then abandoned her cover and unsheathed both her daggers, to step into a relatively new fighting stance, with her daggers being new, and the first time they would see combat, well it felt kind of strange not holding her traditional weapon.

“Yo … New guy lets flank those Merc’s, I will go to the left, and you go right!”

It seemed like a good idea, she would take them from the right and Einn from the left, considering chidori’s frontal assault failed, even with taking cover behind the dragon, which was taking swipes at the Merc’s.

“… Right, lets go”

Either he would listen or not, if he decided to do a frontal attack, that would be his choice, and if he ran away, she would be haunting him for the rest of his life … and after life. Kaiserin dashed of literally back the way they had come, with the dragons now ignoring them for now she was able to slip into one of the many alleys. Working her way around and following her ears for the battle cries, it was almost too simple to head around back to the fighting.

Kaiserin however then came to a sudden halt, three of those mercenaries stood in her way, seemingly they were also planning on flanking the dragons, and with Kaiserin wielding her daggers they easily guessed that she wasn’t going to peel potatoes for them.

“Back of now lass!”

The one in the front barked trading his crossbow for his own sword; Kaiserin however raised her daggers, clenching the hilt tightly. Within this narrow space she knew that the ‘Seal Release’ would be close to useless unless for stabbing them all at once, even the three in front of her would not even be able to attack he at once, it was so narrow that they were stood in single file.

“ … Unlucky … still, there is no other option but to slaughter you guys!”

[Rain Ishikura]

Einn watched everything that was happening. He then sighed and shook his head, he was feeling a bit different, his head was telling him to go with the money, but then again Kaiserin did save his life, and he knew all to well he was only trying to impress her. Einn sighed and turned around to the man who looked at him in shock.

“Well boy go kill that girl!” Demanded the man.

“Sorry sir I can not do that…” Einn replied in a cold voice as he took the piece of paper he wrote the contract on and tore it in half. “Because your contract has been voided…”

The man looked in shock once more as Einn turned his back to the man and ran towards Kaiserin, with his sword in hand, before he could get to him though a dragon dropped down right in front of him. It must have seen him attack the male dragon before. Einn backed up.

“Shit a little help here!” He yelled to Kaiserin.

[Chidori Draconid]

“Open your eyes, cry baby.”

This feeling was familiar. It was only a few hours ago that Chidori’s mother told him to awaken as he began to emerge into full consciousness for the first time on Althanas. This time it was a man’s voice now, and he knew good and well that he was in a much graver situation at the moment. That blow to the head had left him unconscious, but for how long? He could hear the feet of the remaining men and the painful moans of the male dragon’s last moments, so it couldn’t have been too long. The young deity knew though that he was at the mercy of his adversaries, whoever they were. Even with a clear sense of urgency brought upon by the dire situation he could not manage to open his eyes quickly.

“Your allies aren’t here to save you. In fact one has chosen to side with us. While I would leave you be you killed one of our men, so it’s only right that I kill you, bring the fellow under contract, and enslave the girl.”

When he did open his eyes he stared at the tip of an arrow approximately three feet above him. One of the abductors stood over him smiling, and as he pulled back the bow Chidori tensed up and grabbed at the pebbled ground he lay on. So maybe this was it. Maybe Chidori wouldn’t die at the hands of a dragon but at the hands of a mere man. Either way he would return to heaven in disgrace being the only god out of hundred in all eternity who had failed his right of passage. He was tired of guessing when he was going to die. It was time to do something about his wellbeing even if his chances were grim.

“Any last wishes?”
“Yes.” Chidori said with a content sense of defeat. “Will these dragon’s children be safe? Where are they? You’re not going to kill them are you?”
“Is that what this is all about?” the abductor sighed and shook his head. “The dragon eggs will be better off with us than those two anyways. After a couple of temperature tests and color observations we confirmed that these two dragons were thieves themselves. Only two out of the four eggs actually belonged to their particular species. They would have to kill other dragon pairs to get those eggs. We’ll let them hatch and sell them to the highest bidder at the bazaar.”

“Will you please see to it that they have good homes?” Now Chidori was just stalling. Now he was attempting to figure out how to trigger his stellar energy without having to use his hands. He knew he could do it. He had seen his mother do it. It was only a matter of entering the right mental state, which was a challenge since the young deity was still somewhat groggy from the hit.

“I can’t promise you that. We’ll sell them to the highest bidder.” The bowman made a regretful sigh. “I’m truly sorry, my good man.”

An instant flash came from out of nowhere, but it seemed as though no one but Chidori had noticed. The abductor pulled back on his weapon even more and released. Chidori felt a sharp force on his chest that knocked the breath out of him, and then a small thud as the arrowhead softly landed on his stomach and rolled to his side. No more than a second later Chidori’s left foot connected with the groin of his would be executioner. Stunned, the bowman fell to the ground, and the young deity put the severed arrowhead through the man’s throat.

While catching his breath and scouring the ground for his blade Chidori couldn’t help but smile at the level of skill he had just reached with his stellar energy. He had successfully used his stellar energy to quickly burn the arrow into two sections so that when the bow was released the only part that would hit with lethal velocity was the headless body of the arrow. The arrowhead would then only be propelled by gravity, which wasn’t enough to penetrate Chidori’s clothing and skin. Luck had its hand in this as well. Had the bowman been more skilled at using the weapon, the arrowhead would have still been pushed by the rest of the projectile. All he would have to do was hold the bow better. In addition had the man not been such a chatterbox there would be an arrow through the young deity’s skull right about now.

The young deity was also lucky that the other adversaries were distracted either with the silver female or the shifty male. They probably assumed that Chidori was dead, which gave him time to find his sword. To the young deity’s left was a small group of them huddled around the bastard with the bastard sword, and to his right three of the men were bearing down on the girl. He cared nothing for the traitorous hound with the bastard sword for the second Chidori seemed struck down he had gone in league with the abductors, so he would assist the girl instead. He actually felt guilty about bringing her into this, so it was only right to primarily support her now that the female dragon was dead and the male dragon was close to death.

Extremely confident that they had her defeated the three men slowly closed in on the silver maiden, so Chidori picked up his sword and crept in behind them. Every step was by toe in order to minimize noise upon the pebbled street of Scara Brae. He put a finger up to his mouth as he passed one of the caged women, who were smiling with hope of freedom. There would only be opportunity for one deadly blow, but at least it would be an even two vs. two battle. Just when he was in reach of one of the men, Chidori swung his sword with as much force possible. His victim fell to the ground with a neck severed like a tree trunk cut half way by a lumberjack. It was perfect timing. The unnamed traitor swordsman was approaching. The young deity then took three steps back and went into battle position, with his knees bent, his feet solid and facing forward, and his wounded left shoulder back for protection. His head was still throbbing, or was that the last steps of the male dragon stepping between Chidori and the man with the bastard sword. Like he had said, the dragon had sided with him and the silver haired girl because they clearly showed which side they were on. The young man with the bastard sword was yet to be confirmed as an ally of Chidori and the dragon.

“Which side are you on now, bastard with the bastard sword? Because the dragon’s with us now. Unless you want to be incinerated attack those who attacked the dragon.”

Chidori knew though that the last remaining dragon was too weak to utilize his fire breath. It would only be a matter of time before it would die, and the dragons dwelling inside those eggs would be orphans unless Chidori could find them. He was the son of the God of Dragons after all. What better way to pay homage to his father than to raise a dragon of his own?

[Kaiser]

Nice one Chidori, Kaiserin was grateful, even more so when the two in front of her turned around at there comrades scream. Seeing a perfect opportunity she raised her hands out and let go of both the daggers, although she could kill the one in front with them, why not take the both out with one attack?

Before her daggers hit the ground she raised her hands in front of her as though she held an invisible sword, but those who knew her, and have seen her fight know that she had another weapon hidden from physical view. At first it was just a glow but threads of light sprung fourth, intertwining to forge her sword within her hands, forging it at the correct angle ready to skewer them both with the 5 foot long sword.

“Shouldn’t you guys be keeping an eye on me?”

As the two in front of her turned around it was too late, the blade was thrust forwards, ripping through the gut of the one in front, and passing by in the space of the next only to rip into his gut. They were done for; they would have 13 minuets of agonising life before death would take them. The first still alive looked at Kaiserin seeing what most people saw, the ruby red eyes staring at him, wild an untamed, yet her lips curled into a grin that simply told him that she knew that outcome straight away, or something like that.

“…Fools”

Her sword faded away, returning to the jewel hidden under her glove, the seal release was a hard weapon to wield, but it had its memorable moments. And just to add insult to injury she kicked the guy in his wound sending him flying backwards on top of the other wounded one, her smirk had faded around now, and the wild untamed look in her eyes returned to those of a cool, calm and collected soldier on a battlefield, she kneeled down, reclaiming her daggers she had dropped in favour of wielding the ‘seal release’ and continued on to catch up to Chidori who seemed like he was still alive and kicking yet …

…The dragon stepped between them and the one with the bastard sword, and Chidori called him a traitor, Kaiserin was a little confused, when did Einn become a traitor. But she grinned as she looked up at the dragon, it was on her side now, wow, now that was a handy ally, even if it was the largest target in existence.

‘… hmm guess they rock more than a horse or an airship … but what the hell do they eat when they can’t get human? ’

Kaiserin then forcefully reminded herself that they were now dealing with a traitor, or so it would seem, maybe she had been left out of the loop, taking cover and heading around to flank the enemy, which did not turn out so well. But Einn a traitor, when the hell did that happen. Still there were more enemy’s to attack, and she really did not want to stick around pointing a finger.

“Guys … Mutiny later, saving little baby dragons … now!”

[Rain Ishikura]

Einn looked up at Chidori with cold eyes. He stopped to think about the job he was offered and passed up. But then again he did need some cash, and even if he didn’t make it he would still at least go out fighting, but then again there that these two new found friends were worth trusting in. Einn then smiled and waved his hand at Chidori.

“Listen I am a mercenary… Not a traitor alright…”He stated with confidence as he smiled at her as he turned around to two men that had just came from an alley way.

“Look there is that mercenary that the old man hired!... Well turn around idiot the dragon is right behind you!” yelled one of them.

Einn turned his head as smiled. ‘Well I hope she believes that I am not here to hurt them after this.’ He thought to himself as he turned his head and took in a deep breath.

“I will most likely pass out after this… Chidori I need to ask you for something… I need you to watch out for my body… I don’t want end up being killed in my sleep you know?” He said as he took his blade and turned to the side so his left arm was facing the two men.

“I have always wanted to try out this attack on something…” He said lifting his blade into the air. Just then a dark aura began to grow around him and his blade. It seemed like it was growing at a fast rate of time.

“It is time to pass my judgment.”

[Chidori Draconid]

Just as the mercenary made his declaration of loyalty the male dragon standing between the two of them began swaying back and forth. He was about to join his mate in the afterlife and only gods knew how many children they would be leaving behind at the mercy of these dissolute human beings. To support the father was useless now. They needed to retrieve the offspring. What to do though. The situation felt like it was getting too complicated for Chidori. He was now fighting a loosing battle against a team of degenerates who had to have been larger in number to abduct the offspring of two dragons. They happened to also be abductors of women. This mercenary seemed to be the great x-factor of the equation, as it was hard to figure out what side he was on. First he fought with Chidori, then he was having conversation with the criminals, and now he was on Chidori’s side again. The young deity was wounded, and although he wasn’t loosing blood, he had a weakened left arm. One of those men, who were twice his size and made of pure muscle, would easily be able to overpower him with only one functional arm. In addition he was temporarily drained of his stellar energy. The only certainty about this situation so far was this girl. If all went well from this moment, he would definitely buy the young woman and the mercenary a drink, but if the young woman was up to it Chidori would make her a mother. The mother of a baby dragon.

One of the caged women frantically shook the bars of her prison. Chidori looked as she pointed past the dragon.
“The man who has the keys to the cages is still standing.”

Another caged woman looked at the silver haired girl. “Get us out of here, and we’ll repay you. You said you wanted the babies, right? We know where they hid them.” She pointed to one of the other women, “And she can mend that young man’s wounds. They have reinforcements and they’ll be here soon. If you’re going to help hurry!”

Chidori looked at the silver girl with a smile, “Sounds like a good deal to me.” Then he looked at the now stumbling male dragon, who was blocking their view of their enemies and the mercenary.

Chidori approached the battle with composure. There was a temporary stalemate for if anything had happened the dragon would have attacked. Therefore there was no need to rush just yet. He’d rather join the stalemate than send everything into panic, so he simply approached with blade in hand.

“Don’t go under the stomach of the dragon,” the young deity said as he stepped over the tail. “He’s bound to fall sometime.”

A dark aura began to emit from the mercenary, and Chidori was given the task of protecting him. This maneuver of his had repercussions that left him vulnerable. Chidori would abide by his request. He would show the mercenary unswaying loyalty. Maybe he would learn something.

[Rain Ishikura]

“Well here we go… Brother… Guide my attack to destroy my enemies and uphold a true name…” He said as he pointed to tip of the blade at the two men who seemed to be getting ready to charge for their own attacks.

Einn took one step forward then, swung the blade outward and brought it one again so that the blade was facing the ground but the hilt was behind his head. The two men seemed to think that his midsection was a good opening in his defense because they bother charged at him blade ready to stab through his torso to kill him.

Einn had a grave smile on his face. ‘Please forgive me for this…’ he thought to himself as his arms tensed up as if he where ready to bring his blade down in extreme force.

“Alright here I go!...” He yelled out as he began to bring the blade down towards the ground in a fierce downward swoop. Just then the aura quickly formed its way into what looked like a small orb at the top of his blade as he brought it downward.

“Crimson Blade!” He yelled at the top of his lungs as the blade hit the ground.

Einn did not even looked up to see if it would hit the two men; because he knew what was going to happen, and in a way he felt horrible about what he had just unleashed.

As the dark ball of aura went soaring though the air it seemed to increase in size greatly. The two men saw this and tried to run from it, but its speed seemed to pick up as well. Catching one of the men in the left side tearing his arm clean off and seemingly paralyzing him instantly. The other man wasn’t as lucky. The orb of aura hit him dead on catching him in the middle of the orb.

“Oh dear god……” Einn softly said as he fell to his knees in exhaustion.

The man let out a bloody scream as blood started coming up from his nose and mouth. Then some blood began leaking out of his pores in his face, then the true horror came about; while the man was still alive and totally able to feel what was happening to him, his left arm was torn from his body then blew up in a bloody mess. A few seconds later his right arm did the same, and then both of his legs. Blood went everywhere as Einn looked on with half open eyes. Just then the man screamed once more as his body itself blew up in the same bloody mess as his limbs.

Einn tried to stand but he couldn’t find the strength to get back up. His sword fell to the ground in front of him as his body followed into an unwanted sleep.

‘God, what kind of monster have I become?…’ Those where the words going through Einn’s mind at this very moment.

[Kaiser]

“ … W … Whoa”

Kaiserin was surprised at the attack, the gore factor had instantly gained 10 points on its own, yet if anything it was a little over the top. Kaiserin assessed the new turn of events, whatever this talk was about the Merc turn coating on them was instantly dispelled, especially after an attack like that … Crimson Blade, that was the name, well it certainly was crimson, the floor that is.

“Oh man … do you think you could have been a little less messy”

She said to Einn but changed her attention from the bloody mess to the women in the cages, and towards the one who had the key, and who she was going to have to go through for that key, in all honesty it would be a lot simpler to bust open the cage with force.

‘Taking dragons eggs… abducting women, they must be fools to think they can get away with stuff like that in this region … still there are only three off us …’

Kaiserin looked back at her two allies, Chidori, was hiding it, but he was injured, and Einn seemed to be distracted, or rather, horrified and looking directly at his victim. Only herself was still in good condition, but then again she had not yet done anything reckless. Daggers were not going to cut it in this situation, although light and fast she could only tackle the abductors one at a time. Her sword, while harder to wield, and more energy consuming, definitely had an intimidating factor, if it were but a few inches thicker it could almost be classed as a dragon slayer, ironic to think considering the dying dragon stood on there side.

“ … Ok … Listen, do you guys think you can actually fight without doing anything stupid or trying to be a hero?”

She asked sheathing her daggers away, stepping forwards she raised her arm and her sword forged itself once again ready to fight. The weight strained her arm, so she opted to rest the tip on the ground, taking most of the weight, her attention was not on the negative aspects of her sword, her ruby red eyes scanned ahead, to the abductors that stood in the way, calculating.

“… Ever played … leap frog? “

Kaiserin asked out of the blue whilst looking back with a grin. Hopefully that was all she needed to say to give them and idea of what she had planned, although not one to stick around and explain she instead got ready to attack. Hoisting her sword over her shoulder with both of her hands gripping the hilt tightly, just by looking you could almost feel her body tense, the strength flowing.

Her body leaned forwards as she threw both arm from behind her, to above her, and in front, eventually throwing the sword forwards, and Kaiserin immediately got ready for the second part.

All eyes turned to the sword as it flew through the air, spinning rapidly, the abductors weren’t fools and those who stood in its path immediately began to move to the sides, a natural cause of action, and herding them, creating a small line in the numbers. The sword however surprisingly made impact with the ground, just in front of them, while undeniable that Kaiserin had a mean arm, by the time they had looked from the sword to its owner, she was already close enough to them to startle them further.

Already her daggers were drawn, facing down in her hands as she came up to the first two, dashing between them as well as slashing there necks as she passed, without even thinking she located her sword making a note of where it was, ready to get to it without even looking for it again. However now was where her comment on the leap frog would come into play, if they had not understood then she was at the front line alone.

However if they had understood, then standing up straight would not be a good idea if they could not jump high, Kaiserin lowered herself to the ground like an animal ready to pounce in case of a worst case scenario, but if her plan worked, then while there attention was on her, they would hopefully not see the other leap over her to strike them down.

[Chidori Draconid]

Chidori stepped back and observed as the gory scene in front of him took place. He was pretty confident that the three of them could have taken the remaining men without resorting to something like this, but it was likely that they would have to resort to killing anyways. Still, they could have done this without making such a mess. Chidori felt a tap on his right cheek. He wiped it off to realize it was blood, and then he looked down to realize that the entire right side of his body was sprayed with red blood. This was only a warning. Seconds later he was pummeled with a splash of blood. The smell and the feel was disgusting. The young deity could feel the wine and tequila churning in his stomach and climbing up his esophagus. He couldn’t let that happen so he turned away from the scene of the mercenary. The young woman had slain the last of the enemies with relative ease and spotlessness leaving a slit throat here and a pure stab there. Finally the smoke had cleared and the battle was over for now. Chidori could go back to finding those eggs.

The young deity looked up from the dead enemies and saw the caged women. That just proved how absent minded he was. For a moment in time he had honestly forgotten about them. One of them pointed at a key on the belt of one of the warriors the woman killed. He retrieved it and unlocked the rusty iron cages. All fifteen of the women were dirty and in makeshift rags for clothes. A couple of them scurried out of the cage, either to get as far away from the scene as possible or to spit upon the dead bodies of their captors for committing crimes unmentionable. One, however, dug through the pouch of one of the fallen men, and pulled out a handful of green leaves. She was younger than the other women, possibly just now reaching adulthood. Then she did something Chidori didn’t see coming. She stuffed them in her mouth and began chewing as she motioned for him to come closer. As soon as he was in reach she grabbed his left sleeve and ripped it off where the arrow had pierced. She then spit the chewed bundle of leaves out onto her hand and pressed it against his wound.

“It’s going to sting at first, but then your arm will become numb. You should have this tingling feeling throughout your entire left side. When that happens let me know.”
“What’s your name?” Chidori asked just before he let out a quiet cry of pain. She must think I’m a big baby.
“Maura Bolin of Lornius.” She took the torn sleeve and used it to tie the herbs down to the wound.
“Chidori Draconid.” Of heaven? What was he supposed to tell her? “Do you have a home to go back to, Maura?”
“No. Ran away. Paid a bunch of sailors to take me to Corone. When they had me on their ship they took me into captivity. We were all supposed to be sold into slavery in Salvar once they were done having their ‘fun’ with us.”

These hooligans were delving into many manners of misdemeanor. A multitude of footsteps could be heard in the distance. A group of men in uniform were approaching. They were the town guard. They had impeccable timing.
“The town guard can help you find shelter and protect you.” Chidori’s proposition was followed by a collective and panicked objection. They didn’t want to be in a place where they were outnumbered by men, and rightfully so That was when the young deity had a rather clever idea. He would split the town guard’s numbers. After explaining what had happened he requested that some of them tend to the unconscious mercenary. Then he had the women locate the hooligans’ safe house, which was a sizable seven bedroom farmhouse on the Scara Brae country side.

The guards raided the house kicking down the door and striking anyone who dared to resist. It would have been a wonderful sight to watch. It must have been gratifying for all those women, but Chidori couldn’t join in the experience. He was busy enhancing the hooligans’ misery by making sure they saw him walk around the side of the house. They knew where he was going, to the storm cellar to retrieve the eggs they worked so hard to steal. There were four head sized eggs sitting in the embers of a dead fire, but to the surprise of the young deity only two of them were that of a green dragon’s eggs. Those eggs were a murky brownish color covered in green spots. The third egg seemed to be made out of glistening grey stone, which meant that was the egg of a silver dragon. The fourth egg was a reflective but dirty brown, which meant that a bronze dragon lay within its shell. The idea of raising a dragon was enticing to Chidori. Two would take up all of his time. Three or four would be unfathomable. He’d have to give these dragon eggs to someone.

By the time he had finished his observations the turbulence upstairs had stopped. The guard and the culprits were gone, and the women were scouring the house for sufficient clothing and food. As crazy as it was, this night ended well for Chidori. He had descended upon Althanas homeless and hungry. Now he had food, a future dragon to raise, and shelter… shelter with nearly fifteen women. But he wouldn’t make any advances towards these women so long as he was under this roof. They had been through far enough. Instead he would just fall asleep as the dusk sun peeked over the Scara Brae horizon. It felt like lapping an opponent during a race. As everyone else’s day just began Chidori’s was just ending.

(spoils: The silver dragon egg. It'll be a while before it hatches, and even when it does the dragon will be harmless for a good long time. The other three will go to the women unless Kaiserin wants one.)

[Kaiser]

Well, that was most certainly an experience she isn’t going to forget anytime soon, battling along side a dragon, despite only being as brief as it was. Having sheathed her daggers and retrieving her sword, there wasn’t much to do except watch the following events unfold, the town guard, finally making a move. But as Chidori went to free the women in the cages Kaiserin felt the earth violently shake under her, not to mention the almost thunderous fall.

“… Wha”

Her eyes turned towards the source of the disturbance, the dragon, had fallen, that would make those unborn hatchlings orphans, she felt pity, ignoring the fact that a few times today they had tried to flame grill her. Now it had fallen due to its wounds, and Kaiserin could do nothing but watch it in its final moments.

“… Dammit”

Reluctantly she stood herself up, looking around for Chidori, either he knew this was inevitable, or he just didn’t care, whatever. Although it was bugging her, Chidori still owed her for dragging her into this whole ordeal, after getting some compensation maybe then she can finally Scara in her past, especially after something like this.

By the time she had started walking over to Chidori, he was being taken led further into the town, for a moment, Kaiserin stopped and looked back at the mercenary, she wondered what that business of him being a traitor was all about, yet then again some part of her didn’t actually care.

By the time she had caught up to Chidori he had already entered the safe house along with the women, but he had not entered instead he was heading around the side to the cellar.

‘ the eggs?

She concluded and followed him in, there she spotted the eggs like Chidori had, watching him eye up the silver one. Well he owed her, and by the looks of it he was going to claim at least one of the eggs … hmm, well she had commented before that owning a dragon would be a lot more convenient than a horse or an airship; it kind of combined those ideas anyway. The only down side was that she had little knowledge of dragons, but she did know that it would be at least a good few years before the little thing could be flown on … why not, she knew that she had the potential to live that long.

“Well, looks like you’re going to claim these … and as I said before you owe me one …”

‘Aww there are no Red Dragon eggs, heh that would be ironic considering my father and all… guess brown is closer than a green ’

“… so, I will be taking the brown looking one, and I will finally be getting out of this whole region”

She said claiming the egg, surprised at its own warmth; she tucked it under her arm wondering what she was getting into. But who in there right mind would turn down a dragon egg? Who?

“My payment”

She grinned leaving the cellar, she took off her jacket and wrapped it around the egg, there was no telling what might happen if someone saw her with that thing, she would be getting mugged for it all the way to Corone, which she then started to leave for.

((OOC: spoils: Urm, one bronze dragon egg please, heh didn’t expect the end here, still here is my conclusion and such))

[Osato]

General comments
Ok, I’m going to put three comments per area for the judgment so that each of you will be able to see what I thought of your additions to the quest. I also might add a general idea as to how you all could have acted better, or how well you did act together in some areas as opposed to single comments.


Score 32


Introduction 4
Chidori You intro was interesting. I saw that you were trying to open up with a lot of character, and yet at the same time throwing in the plot. However, it seemed VERY quick… like you wanted to just get into the quest and get out of it. As a reader it did not seem as enjoyable as it could have been. A lot was happening at the very beginning. It would be easier to read if you established one thing at a time, such as your friendship with the others one post, then the dragons in the next. Don’t feel like you are obligated to put the plot of the quest in the very first post, or even in your intro… however don’t blow it off completely.
Kaiser Why are you leaving Scara Brae? What have you done? What have you not done in Scara Brae? Try and give a little background, a little character, something that will catch the reader’s eye right from the beginning.
Rain The dragon attacked you after you sat down in its path. Why did you just sit, especially with a dragon so close? Who are you? Where did you come from? What is your business in Scara Brae? All these questions could be answered in your intro, helping the reader know a little more about what is going on with Einn. You could also add some descriptions; a little detail would help…

Writing Style 4
The overall writing style was not impressive in general. You all wrote well, but you all had many grammatical mistakes. It was also rather bland, nothing to note.
Chidori Good, though you have some grammatical errors and sentence problems.
Kaiser You have a lot of run-on sentences and do not use the correct words at times, and have plenty of dependent clauses connected to other dependent clauses (creating run-on fragments). Be careful and just read over your posts before you post them. Try to condense your sentences to keep them from being run-ons.
Rain Brevity is good, however if you are going to be brief make sure you add enough for people to get something out of your posts. What you gave was enough to get a vague idea of what was happening with your character, but little more.

Setting 3
You didn’t describe anything beyond the very first post… as a reader I felt little in the way of enticing me to continue reading the thread. You described your fighting, which is part of strategy, and you described the weapons the opponents held. That was about all I got. You need to give the reader something, as opposed to nothing. Try and write about what you would see, hear, feel, and smell in that type of situation. Appeal to the senses when you can.

Character 4
Chidori You gave no character at all outside of reactions, which were different post to post, and dialogue, which was scarce.
Kaiser Try and give your character a personality that makes it unique like a real person. It will make the reader more interested in your character. At the same time, this correlates with dialogue and all other parts of the thread. Be careful with how you portray Kaiserin
Rain How did you jump onto a wagon, then onto a roof, then onto the dragon’s head? That’s somewhat ridiculous.

Dialogue 3
Chidori Ok, though it would be easier to read if you put a space between separate dialogue instead of leaving it all touching. It is hard to follow the way you write it now.
Kaiser Umm… seems very cliché and forced. Try and add dialogue if you need it, otherwise leave it out because it makes the thread kind of melodramatic and inane. “Yo… new guy…”? What… I can’t believe you added that…
Rain When you DID write dialogue it was ok. However, do not be afraid to give voice to the Non-Player Characters (NPC’s) that you add.

Strategy 2
Chidori Interesting, though sporadic. You realize that how narrow the blunted part of the arrow, without the head, shot by a fifty pound bow at the range of a single yard would STILL penetrate your chest. Your character should be dead, even without the arrowhead attached.
Kaiser You did ok for strategy, though it was nothing particularly special it was also nothing particularly wrong.
Rain Lacking, completely. You actually have to add what you did and how it stood out. And, on top of that, fighting requires you to do more then just randomly jump from wagon’s to roof’s to dragon’s heads. That did not make any sense. To add to that, your ability ‘Crimson Blade’ is WAY too strong. I am not sure how you were approved with an ability that could tear people’s arms off and make them bleed to death from every pore, but I may be bringing that up with someone in the future.

Rising action 4
The rising action was not bad, though you each did so many different things in a short period of time that it was very hard to follow.

Climax 2
There really was no climax. There was a rising action, and then everything stopped. Kaiserin was halfway through playing ‘leap frog’ with the mercenaries and getting keys to the cages when Chidori decided that he could get them off the dead guy right next to him. Remember to read each other’s posts before posting your own, it makes it actually easier to follow.

Conclusion 1
Chidori gave me a conclusion that was tied directly in with his climax, which made it seem rushed and as if you just wanted to finish. It really was not much of a conclusion to speak of. Kaiserin did the same thing as Chidori, and I did not even get a conclusion from Einn…

Wild Card 5
It was an interesting quest, had a good plot, but made little sense and was far too short for what you all tried to put into it. Remember, try and appeal to the senses when you give descriptions, don’t add dialogue if you don’t need to, and don’t rush through the quest. If you had all taken your time and added what you know you needed to instead of throwing up twenty posts quickly your score could have been significantly better.

And please, Please, read over your posts and type them on Word whenever possible. That alone could correct most of your grammatical errors as well as almost all of your word choice problems.


Repercussions
The mercenaries were captured and tried for their crimes, though only two years of prison time was their punishment (nothing says taking eggs from an animal is wrong, we take them from chickens constantly).

The eggs that were taken were not well tended once taken from the heated lair of the dragons, and even less well kept when they were transported through Scara Brae. Unfortunately both eggs were destroyed due to the lack of heat needed to grow the baby dragon, and one was cracked having lost its fluids long before the three were given them.

The Town Watch allowed each of the three heroes involved 50 gold rewards for the capture of the mercenary team.

Rewards
Chidori 220 exp 50 gold
Kaiser 200 exp 50 gold
Rain 175 exp 50 gold

[Zieg dil' Tulfried]

EXP and GP added.